Exclusive: Eve Recalls Induction Into Ruff Ryders And Rap Battle With DMX In ‘Origins Of Hip-Hop’ Teaser

Mya Abraham
·2 min read
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Hip-Hop heads are just days away from the premiere of A&E’s new docuseries, Origins of Hip-Hop. The highly-anticipated series will allow eight prominent rappers to detail personal and professional life-altering moments, obstacles, and lessons, accompanied by archival footage—as told by themselves and their inner circles.

Among the featured stars is Eve, the former First Lady of Ruff Ryders, talk show host, and star of ABC’s Queens. In this exclusive snippet shared with VIBE, the Let There Be Eve rapper explains her first encounter with Ruff Ryders and how she wound up battling the entire crew including the late DMX.

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“Jimmy Iovine called me. This group called Ruff Ryders, I think it’d be a good fit. You need to go to Yonkers and go meet them,” she begins. Nas narrates that the all-male group wanted a female emcee to balance and compliment them, but first felt she needed to prove herself.

“I had to basically rap for my life,” she states. Ruff Ryders considered X to be the “god of battling” as he embodied the “essence” of the beloved art form.

Setting the scene, Eve details the drive from Philly to Yonkers. “My management drove me up and it was ‘Team Go’ in the car the whole time. Like, ‘Yo, you know this is the moment that we got to make this happen. So you feel good? How you feel? You feel good?’ It was getting ready for a prizefight, like a match.”

Eve arrived at a studio full of men who were also armed with pit bulls and ready for war. Swizz Beatz recalls in the teaser, “I just remember seeing everybody rush into the room and lot of screaming, a lot of yelling, and she was just handling everybody and battling Drag and battling other people, and she just didn’t stop.”

Find out what happened when Eve went toe-to-toe with DMX on the premiere episode of Origins of Hip-Hop. The series airs on Monday, May 30 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, beginning with Fat Joe. The program will then move to its regular night on Tuesdays, starting on June 6 at the same time. Future episodes will also highlight Busta Rhymes, Ice-T, Ja Rule, Uncle Luke, Lil Jon, and Grandmaster Flash.

Watch the exclusive clip from Eve’s upcoming episode above.

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